Alan Kelly – Ceol FM Featured Artist/Group of the Day 12

It might be unusual to start off a post with a quote but I just love this one from the Irish Times. A good friend of mine, Trudy Maguire will hopefully get a kick out of it too. It is near the start of a review of the exceptional musician Alan Kelly.

Having chosen an instrument, the piano accordion, which was about as popular in traditional music as an atlas in Sarah Palin’s book collection.

I’m very fortunate, I absolutely love the piano accordion mainly from Trudy’s playing. I think it was she who introduced me to alan Kelly so I’ll dedicate this feature to both of them as both of them are very versatile musicians.

One of the best albums that Alan Kelly has produced in my opinion is “The Last Bell”. The song “Music Makers isn’t the most traditional of course but I love the arrangement.

Now for the fun part. As part of researching these featured musicians and groups we are learning more about them. For example:

Alan Kelly, a native of Roscommon, living in Galway is a piano Accordion player and composer with several brilliant albums under his belt such as Out of the Blue, Mosaic, After the Morning, Fourmilehouse, The Last Bell and Small Towns and Famous Nights. He has featured with other musicians such as Eddi Reader, Cathy Ryan, Niamh Parsons, Michael McGoldrick, Cathal Hayden, Seán Keane and Boo Hewerdine. He has commented in reviews that he is attracted to tunes when the melody stirs him and not by the complexity of the music. This attention to the melody is something that you will notice in Alan’s playing.

Alan Kelly came from a very musical family. His grandfather was a fiddler, his grandmother, a melodeon player, his father, Frank Kelly, a piano accordionist and his mother, Mary Kelly, an adept pianist and saxophonist. Alan’s influences are noted to include Paddy Ryan, John Carlos, Patsy Hanly and Frank Jordan all local musicians.